Market day

Saturday 8th March


Spent my last full day in New Zealand pottering around Christchurch. Walked along the river and watched the punting. Also visited the botanical gardens and the arts and crafts market, filling up on food from the various stalls.

We even treated ourselves to a Pimms as the weather was so nice, although the barman clearly wasn't sure how to make it and asked if we wanted it with Coke! That evening we had a lovely farewell meal with a few glasses of wine.

It was sad saying goodbye to New Zealand as have had such an amazing time, met so many great people and experienced so many different places and things. However I am also looking forward to beginning my new adventure in Oz. Especially as Sam has decided to come with me so we are going to be looking for jobs and a place to live as soon as we get there.

Some New Zealand phrases - 'Sweet as', 'Awesome' Kia Ora'

Kaikoura

Friday 7th March

Had an amazing day trip to Kaikoura today, home of the crayfish, hence it's name (kai meaning to eat and Koura meaning crayfish). Kaikoura is situated about three hours out of Christchurch and it was an absolutely gorgeous day.

I had been recommended the trip by friends I had met on the north island so was really excited about swimming with dolphins. The boat trip itself is about 4 hours in total and during this time you spend about half an hour in the water with the dolphins and the rest of the time following the pod around the ocean.

We were lucky on our trip because as well as seeing a pod of 200 Dusky dolphins that we swam with we also saw several Hector dolphins, one of the smallest and rarest in the world which are only spotted on 5% of trips.

Actually swimming with the dolphins was an amazing experience although tiring at the same time as you had to swim out in your wet suit flippers and snorkel as quickly as possible and then try and keep up with them. The first time I didn't manage to catch them but after that I managed to get right in amongst them as them swam around and underneath me. You can become quite disorientated though as Jas found out when she managed to swim to the wrong boat after one swim.

By the time we got back to shore we realised that there was no bus for another 4 hours (not exactly the most frequent service) so instead decided to finish off the day with a walk to the seal colony to watch the seals sunbathing on the rocks metres away from you.I did get a bit close to one whilst having my picture taken which he didn't take to kindly too and hissed at me.

We then had fresh scallop sandwiches at a beachside cafe and watched the albatrosses before heading back to Christchurch.

Christchurch

Thursday 6th March

Today was a bit of a nothing day as we travelled to Christchurch which is a long drive with not that much to see along the way. Had it been clearer we should have been able to see Mount Cook, New Zealands highest peak at 3,754m but sadly we couldn't.

We did stop off at Lake Pukaki, a glacier lake and Lake Tekapo which was beautifully blue and housed the church of the good shepherd on it, the oldest church in New Zealand.

Christchurch itself is the largest city in the South Island, home to 400,000 people and is very English with neo-gothic buildings and botanical gardens. Jasmine and I decided to take a quick wander around when we arrived to get our bearings before cooking dinner and watching a film.

River Boarding

Wednesday 5th March

Had a lie in today which was bliss. Well it would have been had there not been two 18 year old chavs in the room, high on god knows what, who accused me of stealing their phone. Not nice and made Jasmine and I feel quite uncomfortable about leaving our stuff in the dorm.

This afternoon was river boarding. I started to get a bit apprehensive on the way there when the guide checked that everyone was a confident swimmer and enquired which of us had used flippers before as the rapids were quite tough. After kitting ourselves out in full wetsuits, body boards and flippers we had a twenty minute training session in an eddy where they could assess how confident we were on our boards and maneuvering. They picked out one Swedish girl as someone they needed to keep an eye out for, but somehow thought I was going to be ok. Little did they know..

We headed out towards the first rapid and I was desperately trying to navigate myself and my board and keep up with the others. I kept falling off and going under but the real trouble happened when I approached the third rapid went in completely the wrong direction to the rest of the group (I still don't know how) went over some rocks on my knees and completely got swept under. Fortunately one of the guides saw me and dragged me out and to the front of the group where I held on to the lead guide for the rest of the rapids pathetic or what. In the calmer water I was fine though.

It was an incredible trip and I am still glad I did it but I am covered in bruises and am still aching days later! We also got to ride on jet skis, a huge slide that you boarded down into the river, swings and rock jumps which were great fun.

Milford Sound

Tuesday 4th March



Took a day trip to Milford Sound today. We were pre-warned that the coach journey was going to be a long one (eight hours in total) but it was well worth it. The scenery along the way was absolutely breathtaking once the sun had burnt through the clouds and the the sounds themselves (or to be precise they are actually fjords but were named incorrectly) were amazing. We stopped off at a mirror lake, which made up for the one in Matheson we couldn't see the other day, before arriving at the boat at midday. We had a hot buffet dinner before wandering up on deck to take in the views and hundreds of photos. It was such a nice day that the seals were all sunbathing on the rocks which was cute.


20 minutes off shore we stopped at an underwater observatory which is like an aquarium except the fish are in the ocean instead of a tank. It was incredible how clear the water was and just how many different species of fish you could see.


On the way back we stopped off at a couple of waterfalls before arriving in Queenstown just before 9pm. Most people were up for a big night but the travelling had taking its toll on me (plus I wanted to be on top form for the river rafting) so by midnight, after a rendition of total eclipse of the heart I headed to bed.

Queenstown

Sunday 2nd and Monday 3rd March

En route to Queenstown today we stopped off at Puzzleworld and tried out loads of optical illusions and mazes which was great fun. Just outside of the city we stopped off at the bungy HQ where quite a few people off the bus did a jump or signed up to do the Nevis high wire the next day which is 134m! The other popular option is a canyon swing. Neither of these appealed to me mainly because I don't like the thought of diving head first into water or onto rocks so it wasn't something I signed up for. There are plenty of other activities to keep you busy in Queenstown though so I know I won't be bored.

After having a famous Ferg burger for dinner the evening was spent getting horribly drunk with the bus. We started off playing drinking games with vodka redbulls and then moved on to teapots of cocktails. I have no idea how much I drank but I think I had too much sugar more than anything as have been feeling sick all day today. So much so that Jasmine and I decided to postpone the mad dog river rafting and spent a leisurely day by the lake instead which was lovely. Having an early night tonight as off to Milford Sound in the morning.

Wanaka

Saturday 1st March

The rain finally caught up with us today. As we piled on the bus at 7.30am it was pouring and it didn't really ease off all day. Our first stop of the day was Lake Matheson or the mirror lake as it's more commonly known, because of its great reflective images. Sadly there wasn't any point walking down to it today as we wouldn't have been able to see anything.

Instead despite a few breaks for something to eat we headed to Wanaka, home of the 5th largest lake in New Zealand. That afternoon some of the group went clay pigeon shooting but I decided to potter around the town and sort out my flight as with only 48 hours before I was due to fly I was getting a little apprehensive. Thankfully I finally spoke to someone helpful and have managed to book myself a flight for the 9th March instead.

We went out for a curry for dinner and were stuffed after failing to finish the set menu. We then decided to pop to the bar opposite the hotel after being told they were having a Bogen theme night. This we discovered was a heavy metal party with everyone dressed up in god knows what. After downing our drinks we made a quick exit as dressed in shorts and summer tops we looked distinctively out of place. The next bar we tried didn't fare much better either with a group of rowdy locals smashing glasses and getting thrown out. So much for a Saturday night in Wanaka. Let's hope Queenstown is better!